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Zack Mwangi

@zackmwangi

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Senior Systems Engineer with expertise in cloud infrastructure and software development.

Kenya

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What I'm looking for

I am looking for a role that values innovation and collaboration, where I can leverage my skills in cloud infrastructure and software development to drive impactful projects.

I am a highly driven and results-oriented Senior Systems Engineer with a proven track record in software development and distributed systems architecture. My experience includes designing and implementing highly available backends and API services that handle over 20 million daily requests. I thrive in collaborative environments, leveraging my skills in cloud platforms like AWS and GCP to optimize software performance and scalability.

In my current role as Head of Engineering at ICTLife Ltd, I lead the design and deployment of containerized RESTful chatbot APIs, significantly improving API uptime and reducing latency. My commitment to continuous learning and mentoring junior engineers fosters a culture of collaboration and innovation within my team. I am passionate about utilizing technology to solve complex problems and enhance user experiences.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Head of Engineering/Product Development Lead

Current

ICTLife Ltd

Jan 2021 - Present (4 years 4 months)

Led the design and deployment of containerized RESTful chatbot APIs with event-driven microservices, improving API uptime to 99% and reducing developer stress. Implemented high scalability using Redpanda and Redis caching, significantly reducing system coupling and improving request latency from ~2s to ~200ms. Optimized automated CI/CD pipelines on GCP+AWS using Github, TektonCI, ArgoCD, and Terra

Go Python gRPC Redpanda Redis Kubernetes Terraform CI CD OpenTelemetry

Systems Engineering Consultant

Various Organizations

Jan 2019 - Dec 2021 (2 years 11 months)

Designed secure network architecture for card security hardware device isolation at Pesapal.com, enabling secure card transaction processing with Visa APIs. Optimized MariaDB tables for ticketing transactions, eliminating downtime during peak times. Implemented task automation using Python/Bash scripts at Starcom System Solutions, linking internal inventory to the online backend and improving sale

Network Architecture MariaDB Query Optimization Python BASH Automation Systems Design Performance Tuning

Head of Technology – Deployment and Infrastructure

AfricaStalking Ltd

Jan 2014 - Dec 2018 (4 years 11 months)

Contributed to building and scaling backend systems to adopt microservices and event-driven architecture in Go, Python, PHP, and Scala, reliably handling 20M+ API requests/day with 99% API service uptime. Led the design and implementation of resilient architecture with load-balanced stateless microservices and multi-zoning on private cloud and AWS, improving system reliability to 95%+. Implemented

Microservices Event Driven Architecture Go Python Kafka Cassandra AWS Load Balancing Monitoring Linux

Full Stack Developer/Technology Lead and Generalist

AfricasTalking Ltd

Jan 2010 - Dec 2014 (4 years 11 months)

Led PHP backend design and development with Python and third-party API integrations, growing the startup from concept to product-market fit serving 5k+ developers worldwide. Developed frontend and backend components of the messaging API, managing web, database, and specialized servers to ensure consistent customer acquisition and high quality of service. Led the evolution from VPS to Cloud, switch